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The White House has begun seeking replacements for Ambassador Jon Huntsman, the administration’s envoy to China who is considering a run for president in 2012, press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday.

“That’s a process that has begun,” Gibbs told reporters in his daily briefing, confirming that Huntsman has told the White House that “he plans to leave during the first part of this year.”

POLITICO reported Monday morning that Republican operatives supportive of a Huntsman presidential campaign have formed a political action committee to lay the groundwork for a bid for the Republican nomination.

Huntsman also met with Arizona Sen. John McCain, the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee who was Obama’s opponent in 2008, and told McCain that he hopes to run for president in the near term.

Still, Gibbs said that Obama “continues to believe” that Huntsman is the right man for his post in Beijing.

“When the president picked him in 2009, it was because we believed and continue to believe that he brings a broad range of experience to an extremely important ambassadorial post, with one of our most important relationships in the world,” Gibbs said.

Anyone in such a key ambassadorial job would be expected to “dedicate their full energy and time to that position, and we believe that Ambassador Huntsman believes that as well,” Gibbs said.

He added that after speaking with several other White House officials, “I have not heard anybody say they know what the future holds” for Huntsman.